Hundreds of people contacted police after a fresh appeal on BBC Crimewatch in October

It
is understood the fancy dress photos were taken by an official nightclub photographer in a backstage area during the Uprawr event held at the Asylum venue, based in Great Hampton Street.

One message posted by the official Uprawr Instagram social network account said: “So last night we found Maddy #casesolved.”

The images were also uploaded onto Uprawr’s Facebook pages.

But after
being contacted by the Mail, the nightclub and promoters distanced themselves from the clubber and said the “distasteful” photographs had been posted online without proper checks.

A
further three pictures with different clubbers posing alongside the man
were posted on the official Facebook page from the club night, with a warning on the album of: “Don’t judge us for what happened backstage.”

Despite attracting nearly 100 ‘likes’ on the club’s official Instagram account, there was also a huge backlash to the images.

One
message, from Jamesfellover, said: “I truly hope none of you experience
the pain of losing a child. There’s black humour and then there’s this,
which just turns an example of the worst humanity has to offer - abduction of a child - into a joke.

“As
you are free to make such jokes, others are free to voice their disappointment in you. I thought Uprawr represented music, getting p***** and having a good time, not revelling in a family tragedy for cheap laughs.”

Another message from Scotographs added: “It’s just as embarrassing that people on here actually condone it. This kinda s*** is the reason I have no hope for society.”

Incredibly
some Instagram users continued to defend the sick series of snaps with xohopeiero saying: “I’m still laughing, my photo with the box is also great!”

A spokeswoman for the Asylum nightclub said she would be speaking to the two promoters who
run the Uprawr events. She added: “We will be speaking to the organisers of the event and also to the photographers and the people who
upload the photographs to the websites.

“I
have already asked them to go through each photograph in future. This is done and dusted and we will be having stern words with them all.”

He
said: “Some people do this because they are courting the controversy and I am conscious that they are achieving that publicity. But my own view is that this is pretty sick.

“It is particularly distasteful and the only way to respond to this kind of behaviour is to boycott the events.”

Scotland
Yard began a review of the Madeleine McCann case in May 2011 and opened
a formal investigation in July. Portuguese police reopened their investigations in October and Scotland Yard also made a high profile Crimewatch appeal.

* Last month two female students outraged with the families of 9/11 victims by entering a nightclub fancy dress competition as the Twin Towers being hit by planes. Amber Langford and Annie Collinge, both 19, won the contest and a £150 prize at a Chester nightclub, despite lampooning the worst terrorist attack in modern history.